Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Day 24

7/14/08, 11:55 AM

Piping is going well. The 2" ball valves and fittings have been installed to all four tanks. All that remains is installing the dimensionally stable suction flex hoses between the separate hard sections and from those to the output valves. All four tanks are now capable of holding water. We test filled tank 1 yesterday to a minimal amount during a fire hose test. No leaks. Tanks 2, 3 & 4 will begin being filled today. The test fill was done with one section of

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 22-23

Nap was good. No, I haven't been asleep continuously since I wrote that. Did get a good long sleep last night, though. I just wanted to let you know that we're here and continuing to work.

Got the 3" full-flow ball valve and a few omitted parts for the pressure header yesterday, along with a 2.5" fire female to 2.5" fire female gender changer, so that we can hook the pressure header fire truck port directly to the hydrant across the spur road during

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Day 21

7/11/08, 5:30 AM

So much for fires moving slower when backing down hills. I said that wildfires are unpredictable. This one proves that. When I crashed last night, it was still near the top of Uncle Sam. This morning, it was already over the ridge top of Elephant, one mountain closer to us. There isn't a very deep valley between the two, so the front moved quicker than I would have liked. (Not moving at all, I would really like.) The nerve meter went up a few ticks

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 19-20

7/9/08, 9:15 PM

Today was even hotter. One of our landscape guys came and continued to clear fuel on the ground and limb-up trees to break the flame ladder. If you get the grass and scrub really short and cut low-lying limbs, especially from easy to ignite tree types, the fire will creep slowly along the ground with the flames not reaching very high and the trees are way less likely to catch. When you've got 10 acres to deal with, you can't whack it all, so you

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 16-18

Plume rising from the far side of Uncle Sam

7/6/08, 1:30 PM

The front on Uncle Sam has reached the ridge and we can see flames towering into the air again. It will soon begin creeping down this side of the mountain toward us, probably by tonight. There's no dozer line up there. The front has a ways to go, still, and the tanks aren't here yet but should be in

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 3-14

6/23/08, 1:05 PM

The fire jumped the far ridge while I was watching last night. It's one valley closer now. Still a few valleys to go but the trend isn't looking good. Winds are from the NNW until Thurs. night when they swing around to W and then SW then SSW and back to WSW by Saturday. This is not good. It appears the crews are letting the interior burn while they tackle the fronts closer to the coast. I understand the logic but the Indians Fire near